News

Swine BU Manager at HIPRA Talks about IPVS

22 October 2012

GLOBAL - After the great success HIPRA achieved at the last IPVS Congress held in Korea, Rafael Pedrazuela, Corporate Swine BU Manager was interviewed by the company. He explained to Hipra the details of the company's participation as a Premium Sponsor at this prestigious international congress and the company’s consolidation as a world reference in prevention for animal health.

The Interview is as follows:

Rafael, this is the first time HIPRA has participated as a Premium Sponsor at the IPVS, why now? What objective was being sought in participating in an event as important as this one?

HIPRA introduced itself at the IPVS as the Reference for Prevention in Animal Health. One of our goals was to communicate to veterinarians, and all those attending the event, that HIPRA is working to be at the highest level and, therefore, we wanted to show our progress at all levels whether in vaccines, diagnostics, etc.

In the last decade, HIPRA has undergone rapid growth; we are currently continuing an internationalisation process. This broad view of the industry keeps us close to the animal health market, which makes us a valuable alternative for customers and distributors, particularly in biological products for production animals. In this regard, the IPVS turned out to be a good stage for presenting HIPRA products internationally. At a time like this, when the sector is undergoing important changes for all species, we at HIPRA are convinced that the key to ensuring animal health is prevention.

What types of products were being promoted at the IPVS?
Our portfolio of biologicals for all species is growing as is the number of countries in which we operate. AMERVAC® PRRS is a well-known vaccine on the Spanish market and in many European countries.

As for the IPVS, AMERVAC® PRSS vaccine was presented at an international level but with special attention to the Asian Market, where HIPRA has achieved a very strong presence in the last years and with very positive perspectives for the coming years.
Swine producers know that PRRS is the most important disease worldwide; that's why HIPRA held a satellite symposium called "PRRSpectives" during the conference, where we addressed the disease from three different perspectives: scientific, the field and, lastly, our perspective on PRRS. To do so, the event was attended by experts from several countries: Dr. Enric Mateu from the UAB (Barcelona, Spain) started things off by introducing PRRS from the academic point of view. Subjects such as genetic diversity, virulence and homologous and heterologous protection were key factors in his presentation.

The analysis of production was conducted, from the European point of view, by Manolo Toledo, who is in charge of sow production at Juan Jimenez S.A.U. (Spain). He spoke to us about the basics for controlling PRRS. His presentation contained two important words: biosecurity and vaccination. Regalado Zamora, head of San Miguel Foods in the Philippines, contributed an Asian point of view by sharing his testimony and experience in controlling the disease in three different situations.

To end the session, attended by over 500 people, Daniel Torrents, from HIPRA's Corporate Swine Technical Services, presented our vision for controlling the virus. After laying out HIPRA's strategy for effective control and/or eradication of the disease, he concluded that proper diagnosis along with a good vaccination programme, coupled with other measures such as biosecurity, is crucial for controlling a disease that, nowadays, has a high cost in the swine industry worldwide.

What is your expansion due to and where do you see yourselves in the next ten years?

Both questions have one answer in common. That's due to a combination of factors; firstly, the vision, internationalisation and our experience. For many years we've included advanced technology in each process and we have a team that is fully dedicated to developing innovative products. Our goal is that those products provide differential benefits to our customers. We try to provide products with the most advanced components that provide solutions and benefits that, until now, have not been covered by the other products available in the industry. Our business focuses primarily on research, production and marketing of biological products: vaccines for pigs, poultry and cattle with high added and differential value to which the latest scientific advances are applied to service of the highest quality and efficiency.

Our strategy for the future is clearly expressed in our vision: to become the reference for prevention in animal health. These days, that is particularly relevant in a changing environment in which the creation of large companies resulting from mergers and acquisitions among multinational drug companies is increasingly common. Probably, at this point, HIPRA is a company with a great potential for growth and we are confident that most of the products launched in recent years and future projects will help maintain this line.